Plastic bottle caps are often on the list of the most common items found in wild places and every effort we can make to keep them out of our environment is worthwhile. Unfortunately, the advice for citizens in the Southern Downs has been to take the lids off bottles and put them in the landfill bin, but there are many people in our community who have been hoarding caps in the hope that a solution can be found. We think we might have found one!

Climate change sceptics and deniers need to go no further than their home insurance bills to confirm that we are all starting to pay for the impacts of climate change. 

As the financial arbiters of risk and associated costs, the global insurance sector has started passing on the cost of climate change to consumers. And like climate change, the financial impacts are truly global. 

We have been putting most of our energy and time this last month into a proposal to relaunch the Land for Wildlife programme in our region and for the Southern Downs Regional Council to create a Land for Wildlife Officer position. 

5PM FRIDAY 16TH MAY 2025. COME FOR A DRINK OUT THE BACK AT O’MARA’S HOTEL AND MEET YOUR FELLOW GBSAN MEMBERS

The Southern Downs Regional Council has announced the dates for free drop off days for Household Chemicals, Warwick on 12th April, 9am-3pm, and Stanthorpe on 3rd May, 9am-3pm (yes, that’s election day).

Another great Bushcare morning weeding out LOVEGRASS at Amiens where Andrew lives. This is a wildflower hotspot. Andrew has extensive knowledge of the wonderful wildflowers and grasses. We helped grubbing out LOVEGRASS clumps and you can see how native grasses and the endangered Zieria Graniticolia have been able to raise their heads. A good strategic use of our GBSAN Bushcare group to help with bringing back healthy biodiversity. Andrew even baked us a cake and took us on a walk to see the exciting things happening on this block.

The Whistlestop Heritage and Community Garden has taken the initiative to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill in the Southern Downs. In a partnership with Terracycle, the Whistlestop has collected over 10,000 blister packs, 15,000 coffee pods and other items which has saved over 150 Kg of waste going to landfill.

Our GBSAN Bushcare group did a mighty job clearing over 500 m of invasive weeds along Accommodation Creek! What a team!

We can't afford to muck around when it comes to controlling the numbers of Feral cats in Australia. These super-hunting machines are a growing environmental menace in Australia, posing a significant threat to native wildlife and biodiversity.

BLOG is a great way to meet people interested in living a more sustainable lifestyle and to learn new skills. Our format is friendly, flexible and welcoming with monthly Saturday meetings starting at 10am. We have no formal committee - just a few people happy to see BLOG get going again and have a bit of fun. Each month we will meet at someone's property (the host) and focus on a particular subject.

An update from Elaine who runs the TerraCycle program located at the Whistlestop Gardens, at the Stanthorpe Railway precinct.

Living in the Granite Belt gives us an appreciation of its amazing flora and fauna. Many plants and animals call the Granite Belt home too and some of these species are vulnerable or endangered. Some are unique to this region and not found anywhere else in the world!

Barbara and Philippa of the Waste and Resource Recovery Team would like to extend a huge thanks to every community member who volunteered their time and their excess goods to the GBSAN Garage Sale on the 9th November. There are too many people to list but you know who you are - congratulations in helping make the monster Garage Sale a success.

The new Council has moved to expand its Pest Management Advisory Committee (PMAC) with the inclusion of representatives from of a broader range of interest groups. This includes the Invasive Species Council and representatives from Granite Borders Landcare, the Condamine Headwaters Landcare Group and Southern Qld Landscapes. A representative from local traditional owners has also been invited to join the committee. I have also been accepted on to the committee as a community representative.

GBSAN held a successful AGM and gathering on Sunday 24th November. Rick Humphries gave a report on the many projects currently undertaken by the different teams active in the network.

Our Bushcare Group continues to work on worthwhile projects in the region. We had a successful morning assisting the Stanthorpe Rare Wildflower Consortium to weed around the critically endangered Grevillea Scortechinii - Black Grevillea. It was encouraging to find several new plants around the existing ones.

Work with preparation and planting of thousands of native trees and shrubs with Quoll Society Australia continued this month. The QuollSA team are an incredibly hard working team making a significant positive change in our area, linking strategic clusters of bushland. They are also very appreciative of the help our Bushcare Group offers. 

Our last project for the year will be assisting the Stanthorpe Community Garden on Saturday 7 December from 8:00am to 11:00. Followed by a morning tea. We will be showcasing our fantastic new gear purchased with the $1000 Stanthorpe RSL Community Grant. Please feel free to come along and say hello or contact Geraldine community@gbsan.org.au to find out more or to join up.

Our team has continued work in recruiting landholders to join up to our Landscape Linkages project which will build clusters of corridors linking bushland to avoid further fragmentation of bushland that has led to species decline  in our region.

A flyer has been created to build more awareness of the project and hopefully encourage more people to register an expression of interest. 

Team members also met with like minded groups such as Granite Border Landcare, Condamine Headwaters Landcare, Sandy Hunter, Environment Officer with SDRC and Wim Linstrom from SQNNSW Innovation Hub. The aim of the meeting was to discuss the re-launch of the Land for Wildlife programme including establishing a coordinator/bushcare officer. All groups are in full support of this idea and a proposal will be ready for Grant applications early in 2025.

Our enthusiastic Bushcare group teamed up with Shannon, Paul and Jess from the Quoll Society Australia to assist with preparation and planting of over 2000 trees on Granite Belt properties.

Our next job will be on 14 November 2024. We will be working together with the Stanthorpe Rare Wildflower Consortium to weed around some critically endangered native plants. If you would like to join us, please contact Geraldine at community@gbsan.org.au

Word is getting out about this important project which aims to join up wildlife corridors/stepping stones across the Granite Belt to assist with survival of our wonderful and unique native fauna and flora. Currently we have 34 landholders who have signed up to the project. We are aiming to have 150 landholders involved in the project within the next 12 months.

Our stall at the annual Stanthorpe Trading and Gardenfest was well received with 4 new members signed up, as well as 4 more landholders joining our Granite Belt Landscape Linkages project. Queenie the Quoll attracted many people. Everyone we talked to expressed excitement at seeing quolls on properties.